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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Have you ever had a frozen mud slide? It's kind of a dessert drink, like a milkshake with hooch. If we lived in Europe where there's no drinking age it would be on sale at Friendly's or Dairy Queen. When I was in college like the child I was I ordered one when a professor of mine asked me out on a date. He was a journalist, slick and cool. He ordered some sort of high-end scotch. I felt really stupid. I haven't had ordered one since. I have had one all over my face however for almost two years.

I recently had an ellipse done on my left eyelid and eybrow area as part of a scar revision process. It was a simple v-shaped slice and reclose to relieve droop. It wasn't a real lid-lift (blepharoplasty) but I am here to tell you it's made a world of difference. Not in how I look but how I feel. Since my first Mohs surgery in Feb. 2009 where I had a honking skin cancer removed that left me with 53 stitches across my forehead I have felt like I had a landslide of mud creeping down my forehead extending into my left eyelid. Scar tissue, nerve damage and the like. I didn't know how annoyed I was by it until I wasn't. The minute my doctor pinched the skin on my eyelid together after excising the droop I wanted to celebrate with hooch. I wish I had that frozen mud slide to drink. I heard the professor I had that drink with in Spring of 1990 died young about 10 years ago. So what they say is true (and I know from experience)

Only the good die young.

I want to die good and old and with frozen drinks and friends nearby. Dancing my way to the grave happy and centered. I am planning on it but going with the flow of this beautiful life.

Here's me contemplating my trek to oldness right after my mudslide was removed.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

I need someone to step in and raise my children. That's what I told them.

Set up: Because of snowy weather our Christmas break started a bit early. We've been in the house together for awhile. There is an abundance of carb-loaded, sugar-stuffed finger food all about our house. My children have been helping their darn selves anytime of day. I am a bit of a freak about what they eat so I am so off-center and way controlling and hyper-aware of everything they put in their mouths. I realize I need to let some of this go, it is the holidays for 6 pound 8 ounce baby Jesus' sake. BUT, I HAVE MY LIMITS....

Keep in mind that last week my girls ate the hard as concrete Gingerbread House because "they were hungry". I guess they forgot where we keep the frig full of nutritious food. I mean I can never find the scissors, I get it.

But THIS was nuts to me.

Today at 2:30 IN THE AFTERNOON as I am preparing to leave for my SURGERY on my eye (after I had been to a Bikram Yoga class and cut up fresh vegetables with dip for lunch) I ask "which one of you has brushed your teeth today?" Each one of them (below) said, "not me" with a giggle as if they were proud and waiting for the crazed response from their mother.

Note: All their mouths are closed probably to hide their unbrushed teeth.

Here's my response:

Screeching, and vein in neck fully engorged: I AM MOVING OUT SO SOMEONE ELSE CAN RAISE YOU. WHAT I AM DOING IS OBVIOUSLY NOT WORKING.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

2.4 miles swimming in frigid temperatures navigating a sea of strange elbows, knees and feet in your face. 120 miles on a bike. Makes my butt hurt to think of it. 26.2 miles on her legs. I've done that and can't even fathom it after two other major MAJOR events. I am in awe of my friend Erin who in her mid-forties just finished her first Ironman competition in Arizona. Needless to say, she's fit, hip, and a rockstar to me. She's humble too. Erin says: anyone can do it, if she can. You just have to want to train. Stress fractures, early morning icy runs, and fear at the start couldn't keep her away. The only time she got teary was when she was about to start. Fear can do that. How she got through? Her mantra.

God is with you. You can do it. For me, she made praying cooler than cool.

I used to think it was not cool if not impossible to be a Mass-lovin' Yogi until I had coffee with my Yogi-friend, Garland.

It isn't Garland (though it looks a bit like her). She can do this on one hand.

Once when I was a freshman in college a "friend" made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with her foot. You know how you get really hungry when.... (it was a very time ago.)

Anyway...

When I'm at Mass I'm a closet Yogi. At Yoga, I am a closet Catholic. Now I'm everything all at once. Garland told me one of her favorite things to do while when was at Teacher Training in Hawaii was to go to Catholic Mass with her roommate. Steel drums, the beach, and a good swallow of Kundalini God will convert anyone. We are the same all at once to Him.

A few random thoughts on this, the feast of the Annunciation. (look it up, after you meditate.) Om and out.